Troubles Of Their Own
by Storie Machine
Summary: Challenger's water purification potion dosen't pury water, but will it serve as something better? Read and find out. Please REVIEW!
1. Default Chapter

There had been many storms on the Plateau, but none like this. Dark clouds filled the sky like a raid of bugs. Rain poured down in buckets. The worst storm in all of the The Challenger Expedition's time on the cursed undiscovered world. Even the dinosaurs found this weather unbearable, and began to run about, causing chaos to other Plateau dwellers.  
  
At the tree house, Malone was getting a little worried. "What If Marguerite and Roxton don't make it through this storm?" he asked, looking out into the dense forest. "Maybe they gave up on the dimonds, and headed towards the Zanga Village," remarked Veronica, coming out of nowhere. She patted Malone on the back trying to comfort him. It was odd to see a storm of such monstrous proportions just pop out of nowhere, and even Veronica had her doubts. The rain was starting to let up; allowing the sun to peek through for a few minutes, but it eventually came back to it's normal pace. Just then, Challenger emerged from his laboratory, revealing a small glass beaker. "Since there has been so much rain lately, I found a way to purify, and clean our water supply!" Malone, hearing this remark, took his mind off of he dreary rain, and watched Challenger pour his chemical residue into their water bucket. ".And what if this goes wrong, and it ruins our water?" asked Veronica curiously. "Well, there's plenty of rain. I think we'll manage." Challenger answered. "Wait! But." It was too late. The water started to boil, and bubble, causing some of it to spill onto the floor. "What happened?" Malone was astonished.  
  
"I would very much like to get back to the tree house Roxton." Marguerite said in a nasty tone. "We'll get there soon enough. We're lucky enough to have stumbled upon the Zanga. Their maps of the Plateau are more accurate of ours, and we should be home in no time." Rain was falling off of Roxton's hat. It was getting dark, and hard to see. Marguerite's backpack was filled with diamonds from the explorer's last cave journey. It only showed how selfish the young woman was. After a long walk home, Marguerite and Roxton finally reached the tree house, and found Challenger, Malone, and Veronica standing around the water bucket. They had towels in their hands, trying to stop he uncontrollable flow of clear water. "Grab some towels, and help us here!" screamed Veronica. Confused, Roxton ran somewhere in the tree house, and retrieved some bath towels. When he came back, the water stopped. "Okay, can you explain to us what just happened?" said Marguerite. "Challenger found a new way to purify water, and all of a sudden, it started to bubble, and boil with hot water." remarked Malone. Sounds like a good idea for a hot bath. thought Marguerite peevishly.  
  
After all of the explorers greeted each other, everyone sat down to eat. "I found some nut and berries on the way home. Just something to snack on." Marguerite placed a large bowl on the table. Everyone ate. It was like a feast, only without real food. "Challenger, what exactly happened with our water bucket?" Malone's voice startled everybody, for they were eating. "Well," Challenger answered. "Think of it as compressed air in a liquid form." Roxton gave him a funny look. Challenger tried using his hands to demonstrate this time. "Once the compressed air hits the bottom of the bucket, it releases, allowing it to bubble and boil." "That still doesn't explain how the water got warm though." Added Veronica. "Rightly so." said Challenger.  
  
The next day brought some good weather to the Plateau. Exotic birds chirped in the early morning air. Dirt was turned into mud from yesterday's rain, so it made it nearly impossible for anyone to get out of the tree house. Especially Marguerite. "I am not going out there in that-that-that atrocious mud!" she declared. "Too afraid to get your boots ruined?" teased Malone. He knew all of the brunette's weak spots by now. "That is not funny!" "Judging by the look on your face, I think that's true!" Roxton popped into the twosome's argument. "Good morning." he said hoping to stop the battle. "Good morning, Roxton." Declared Marguerite, nastily. "You two better be quiet. Challenger is still sleeping. He was up all night trying to find a solution to his water purification potion." Malone looked at Marguerite carefully, and said "Yea Marguerite, Challenger is sill sleeping!" Veronica also appeared out of some curtains. "Next time, all of you should be more quiet. I woke up to the sounds of Marguerite yelling." She snapped. All four of the explorers argued, and argued. After a few minutes, Roxton heard a roar of a dinosaur. "Get the weapons. A T-Rex is headed our way."  
  
  
  
More where that came from coming up soon. Please review! Chapter 2 is coming! 


	2. Another Victim

Chapter 2  
  
  
  
Quickly, Marguerite went and retrieved the guns, and everyone (but Challenger) ran outside to fight off the huge Dinosaur. Malone waited patiently for he monster to come, with his rifle aimed. The ground shook, and rumbled, signaling the approach of a beast. "When I say 'FIRE', shoot at the dinosaur's eyes. Got it?" Roxton said. Everyone nodded. Veronica didn't like waiting for something to happen. It was long, and the suspense was unbearable. She had her knives ready to throw. All of the surrounding trees shook, and finally, he T-Rex appeared. It let out a defining roar of warning, and then charged. Roxton, and Malone shot and shot, but the Dinosaur kept on coming. Veronica was waiting for that perfect moment.and.  
  
Two knives hurled through the air and hit the T-Rex in both eyes. It moaned in pain, and fell to the ground. "Nice shot, Veronica." Remarked Malone. He gazed into her eyes, looking for the same look back, but instead, she turned away. "Well, I did something too!" said Marguerite, hoping to get some attention for herself. "True." Roxton mumbled. Challenger leaned over the railing of the tree house, and started to smile. "Well done guys! Well done!" he said. "Finally your awake." "Yes I am, and I'm ready to." Marguerite collapsed to the forest floor. "Oh my god!" Yelled Veronica. All four of the explorers chipped in and helped lug Marguerite up to the tree house. "Marguerite, are you alright?" She didn't answer. "Knocked out cold." Said Challenger. Her eyes were closed, so she looked like she was sleeping silently. Of course she wasn't. Suddenly, a cough was heard. Marguerite was awake! Coughing quite loudly, Marguerite sat up from the couch with the rest of the gang standing above her. "What a nasty cough." "I have just the thing!" Challenger remarked. "Another experiment is gonna go wrong." Veronica rolled her eyes. Challenger walked into his lab, and came back with the same potion that ruined their water. "What the hell do you think you're doing with that?" asked Malone. "It's perfectly safe, and Marguerite will be fine." Challenger answered over the coughing. "I won't let you!" defended Veronica. "Veronica, trust me with his time. I promise it'll work." "Well, okay then. Go ahead." Challenger walked over to Marguerite and lifted up her head. He put the glass beaker to her mouth, and made her swallow the potion. Immediately, the coughing stopped. "Where am I?" asked Marguerite. "Oh no." "What?" Roxton didn't know what was going on. "A side effect that I thought we'd have. Amnesia. Marguerite should recover soon however. She just needs to get some rest." "So what happened that would make someone as healthy as Marguerite pass out?" asked Roxton. "That rain we had yesterday. It must have contained some type of unusual nerve gas. That explains why the dinosaurs have been going wild." "So how can we stop this from infecting all of us" "I have just the plan."  
  
"Marguerite, are you feeling better now?" said Malone, sitting next to her on the couch. "I-I think so." "Good. All of us are going out for a walk, so just stay here. Okay?" "Okay." "We'll be back in a few hours." "Have a nice walk." Malone got into the elevator, pulled the lever down. Marguerite was left alone. She drifted in and out of sleep, so she didn't mind he lack of company. When Malone got down to the forest floor, he was joined with Challenger, Veronica, and Roxton. "So what's your plan to get rid of this nerve gas in the air?" asked Roxton. "Well, I was thinking." "Thinking what?" "Do you think you can manage not taking a bath in our swimming hole for a few days?" "Challenger, What exactly are you proposing?" "Did you see how Marguerite fainted from the high levels of chemicals from the rain?" "Yes." "If we contaminate our water with my potion, and the water evaporates, the next rainstorm should bring relief to the nerve gas." "We better get walking guys." Malone caught up to Challenger and Roxton. "Good point, Malone. Let's go. We only have a few hours." The three walked through the deep forest hoping to solve their problems. Nothing much happened on the short walk to he swimming hole. Malone tripped on a tree root, and Challenger tried to make a few conversations. Today was hot and sticky; miserable weather. Finally, for what seemed like an eternity, the explorers reached their swimming hole. "Challenger, this BETTER work!" warned Veronica. "I'm sure it will, but in the meantime, we have to make sure that none of the Troggs come and drink this water. It's poisonous to their bodies, and we mean them no harm." Veronica nodded in agreement. Challenger knelt down and poured his potion into the crystal clear water. The whole pond started to bubble, and broil. Roxton and the others backed away cautiously. Amazingly, the pond overcame, and stopped its commotion. "That wasn't a big deal." Said Roxton, relieved. "Okay, we got the job done, and now we can go straight back.back.back. to the trrrreeee."Malone fell into the water. He was unconscious, and would drown if someone didn't save him. Alarmed, Roxton dived into the warm water to save Malone. Underwater, Malone was floating straight towards the bottom, but just in time, Roxton grabbed his arm and brought him to safety. Great. Another man down. Thought Challenger. If another dinosaur comes along, we're dead meat! "CHALLENGER!" yelled Roxton. Veronica and Challenger went over to help Malone. Kneeling at his side, Challenger ordered Veronica to empty out his canteen, and fill It up with water from the pond. She did just that, and gave the canteen to Roxton. "Force Malone to drink it. He'll only get worse if he refuses to." Challenger explained. Roxton made Malone choke down the watery potion, until his coughing fit stopped. Just as everyone thought things couldn't get any worse, they did. A pack of Velocirapors flew out of nowhere. It was just then that Challenger noticed that they had all ran out of ammunition. 


	3. An Uneventfull Conclusion

Chapter 3  
  
  
  
"Roxton, we have some trouble here." "I've already found that out, Challenger." Roxton looked at Veronica hopefully. He cleared his throat before speaking. "Veronica, how many knives do have?" "About three." "Perfect. Malone doesn't need one. He's still sleepy, and a little dazed." Veronica carefully threw the two spare knives to Challenger and Roxton. The pack of Velociraptors was getting impatient, and started to attack Malone, when shots rang out. One by one, the dinosaurs were shot. Roxton turned around, and saw Marguerite with two pistols in her hands, aiming from the tree house. "Looks like someone recovered just in time." Remarked Malone, who was just getting up. "You did too, Malone." Said Veronica. Now, this time, Veronica looked into Malone's eyes, but he ignored her completely. She made nothing of it though. "Marguerite, good shot!" Yelled Challenger, cupping his mouth, so his voice could be heard. "Thanks. I think you guys owe me one!" Marguerite yelled back. Later, back at the tree house, the whole gang was celebrating their close call earlier that day. It was getting pretty late, and Marguerite was getting a little sleepy. She got up from her chair, yawned, and said, "Ahhh, I think I'll be headed to bed now. It's kinda late. Don't you agree?" "I guess your right." Hesitated Roxton. "I'm gonna hit the hay also. Goodnight everyone." "Goodnight" they said in unison.  
  
I was about 4-o-clock in the morning when the rain started coming down. It was steady, but slow. When Marguerite woke up, she heard the soft drone of dinosaurs in the background. They sounded relieved. Thank goodness that Challenger's potion worked! Now, we won't have to worry about dinosaurs going crazy. Eventually, all of the explorers were up, and running. The steady rain slowed Marguerite's annual "Diamond Hunt", but Veronica was kind of relieved. When Marguerite came home a night, after her "Diamond Hunt", she would go on and on about how beautiful they were. It was horrible. Luckily, Marguerite didn't find any diamonds today.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
.And so, The Challenger Expedition keeps on stumbling upon new clues. Some may lead them off of.  
  
  
  
The Lost World 


End file.
